BENGALURU
The funeral of Billionaire Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha, whose body was taken out from river after 36 hours of his missing from a bridge near Mangaluru in Karnataka, took place at one of his coffee estates at his village in Chikkamagaluru district on Wednesday evening after hundreds of people bade him a tearful adieu. .
Hundreds of people, including Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar and other senior politicians, attended the funeral. The 60-year-old businessman was the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna.
Siddhartha, whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage and brought in a latte, cappuccino, Americano and espresso into the urban Indian lexicon, was 59. He is survived by his wife Malavika and sons Amartya and Ishaan. Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil said Siddhartha’s body was identified by his friends.
Siddhartha’s body was found by local fishermen and patrolling policemen on the banks of Nethravathi river near Mangaluru on Wednesday, two days after he went missing. A letter allegedly written by him to the Board of Directors and employees of his company Coffee Day Enterprises, showing he was struggling with financial problems due to debt, taxes and share buybacks, came to light as well.
The search involved multiple agencies, which scoured the waters under a bridge across Nethravathi, where Siddhartha, founder of India’s largest coffee chain, was reportedly last seen on Monday night, officials said. After the postmortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru, the body was taken to his home district of Chikmagalur.
Before Chethanahalli, the body was kept at Chikkamagalur for people to pay their last respects.
A large number of people from within the coffee estate and neighbouring villages, whom Siddhartha had helped come up in life, thronged to pay their homage to the ‘coffee king’. Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, his predecessor HD Kumaraswamy, and several political leaders attended the funeral.
“We have found the body. I have no words to comfort the family,” Yediyurappa said. “He had more assets than liabilities.”
Borrowing Rs 5 lakh from his father to pursue his dreams, Siddhartha, known for being shy and self-effacing, went on to become the “coffee king”, creating jobs for thousands of youth instead of joining the family business. The family-owned over 350 acres of coffee estate and had been in the business for over 140 years.
A police official said that “everything” points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.